hypercharleyfarley

Latest posts by hypercharleyfarley

Where exactly is your wisteria planted, Ryan? All too often people plant things close to a boundary where the soil is poor or compacted, and they don't remember to make a really big hole and use some good quality compost to back-fill the hole when planting things.

I've never heard or read about root-pruning wisteria, so would be reluctant to try it, having found what (to me at least) was a totally satisfactory way of getting the plants to produce plentiful flowers. During the summer months, after they have finished flowering, the wisterias here seem to grow like triffids. I think I really should measure the rate some time, as I reckon the shoots grow about 18" per week, and spread across windows etc during the time I'm away in the summer!

I'm certainly not "the expert" mentioned in a previous post, but I have made suggestions in the past ref caring for wisteria. As others have already said, it can take many years before a newly purchased plant may flower, so it's a good idea to buy one when it is actually flowering so that you know there's every chance that will continue to do so thereafter.

When I came to my current home - over 20 yeas ago now - there were two very well-established wisterias at the property but neither of them flowered. I found this very frustrating, as the plants themselves had clearly been there for many years with the main stems being at least 3" in diameter. They had been planted at the front of the house, at the base of the house wall, in rather small holes which had been made in the concrete path which ran along the whole of the front. I discovered that they needed to be very well-watered during the autumn months, in order for them to flower the following spring. I made sure that they got lots of water until the time came when the path itself was removed in order to create a shrub bed in its place, together with a new layout for the driveway etc. Since then the general rainfall has meant that the moisture spreads throughout the shrub beds and extra water for the wisterias has proved to be un-necessary.

The reward has been what could be described as resembling a purple waterfall down the whole of the front of the house - and it's turned out to be one of those things which people use to identify the house itself - i.e. "that one with the fantastic wisteria".

My guess is that not only lack of water but also lack of nutrients played a part in the poor "performance" of the plants - the soil close to the house foundations was probably very poor quality and the concrete path certainly meant that there was insufficient water reaching the roots.

It doesn't work, however, to use too much fertiliser because this stimulates leaf growth rather than flowers, so careful and regular watering seems to be the solution.

If you google "deer repellents" you'll find all kinds of ideas - some from the US - about non-electric ways to stop them eating stuff. I don't think many of them work for long, so it looks to me as though you only have a few options available if you're determined to keep the privet.

It might be worth making a cage-type structure to cover the new part of the hedge, using small-ish gauge wire netting which the deer's nose couldn't get through. The leaves might then grow enough to establish a solid-looking hedge within the "cage",

You could try the kind of motion-activated cat repellent gadget which people say can also work to deter other animals, or - at virtually no cost whatsoever - you could ask a local hairdresser to let you have some human hair offcuts and hang this in a netting bag close to the privet.

Do you mean tree ivy or other varieties? I have quite a lot of ivy - on two pillars which support part of a large open rear porch, and more on a house wall where it was planted to hide some mis-matching brickwork when the level of a windowsill was raised. Both of these areas are an absolute haven for nesting wrens, so I only hard-prune the ivy in autumn and winter - though even then the small birds use it as a roost.

During the warmer months - when the ivy is growing - I regularly remove all the small shoots to restrict the area it covers. I can usually just break it off without needing to use a blade of any kind but it you do have to be consistent and relentless as it will soon take over if you turn your back for a couple of weeks!

As far as tree ivy is concerned, the berries are a good food source for some birds right now - today several pigeons flew away from a ivy-covered tree trunk as I walked past. Two large trees in the nearby woodland were blown over in that gale a week or to ago - they were really top-heavy with tree ivy so I suppose that's why they fell.

Hello again - we "cross-posted" I think. Ref hiding the metal fencing - there could be a bit of a problem in that many garden fences these days aren't supposed to be higher than 6ft/2m. One way round this is to erect what I call a "half pergola" - if you google pergola you'll see what I mean - and if the posts are put in approx. 3ft from the fence (so that you can reach it for maintenance purposes) you can grow stuff up the poles and across the horizontals so's to hide the metal fence.

gosh - that was a quick response! As far as books go, think it's a personal kind of thing in that some people like the technical/factual stuff and some prefer things with lots of photographs and suchlike. At least - in a charity shop - you'd only need to spend a relatively small amount of cash to acquire a whole shelf-full of books which might help not only now but later on too.

If you can find (via t'internet perhaps) some CDs of AlanTitchmarsh or Geoff Hamilton working on various projects for people - or TV series - you might find them worth having.

Gardening is such a personal thing in terms of what we like/want/can actually achieve that it's a bit of a minefield to try to suggest any particular aspect. The main thing - in my opinion anyway! - is to try to look ahead a bit and only spend the larger amounts of cash on things which you know will have to last a long time. That means any paved areas, a shed or greenhouse, whether or not you'd decide to have a conservatory in future, etc. I guess you can see what I mean by that.

Hello GJ4 - you've really got the proverbial Blank Canvas there! Really good that there seems to be nothing much in the way of other property close behind, so lots of light and no real need to make much by way of screening for privacy.

I'm a bit puzzled by the fact that there seem to be two boundary fences - the wooden one, and then the metal one on the other side of the wooden panels. What's actually on the other side? Could this affect anything you want to do with your own garden area?

One of the most cost-effective things to do at this stage - as far as getting ideas is concerned - would be to go to a local charity shop and see what books they might have ref gardening. It's one of the best ways I can think of to discover what you could do with your own garden - and then you could see whether there's something on You-Tube ref how to dig, prepare the ground, plant stuff, prune stuff etc if you're unsure about how to do it all.

When it comes to buying tools etc, it's worth checking out your local Freecycle or car boot sales - you never know what you might find!

Good luck with it - and maybe you'll post some photos in a few months' time so we can see how you get on.